ETSU claims its second tournament championship in as many weeks

LYNCHBURG, Va. (Sept. 3, 2016) – The ETSU volleyball team continued its stellar play Saturday as it picked up two more victories over USC Upstate (3-1) and Liberty (3-0) to wrap up the Liberty Invitational. With the pair of wins, the Bucs have not only won back-to-back tournament championships but they have also tied a program record for the best six-match start to any season in program history (6-0).

USC Upstate Recap: ETSU had to deal with some adversity in its first match of the day as USC Upstate won the first set, 25-21. Following the first set, however, the Bucs tightened things up defensively and held the Spartans to a hitting percentage of .099 over the final three sets on their way to a 3-1 win. ETSU outscored the Spartans by a total 19 points over the final three frames.

AJ Lux (Shelbyville, Ind.) continued her hot-hitting with 16 kills on 34 attempts, while Briana Allmon (Flower Mound, Texas) and Rylee Milhorn (Kingsport, Tenn.) had double-doubles. Setting up all three was Kristen Favre (Plano, Texas) who dished out a career-high 58 assists. Defensively, the Bucs had four players reach double figure dig totals, including a team-high 18 from Hailey Aguilar (Oswego, Ill.). Freshman Kaela Massey (Brentwood, Tenn.) was ETSU’s top blocker with seven block assists.

Liberty Recap: In their second match of the day, the Bucs’ improved steadily as the match wore on. In the first set, ETSU hit .154 as a team and that moved up to .200 in the second, which eventually bumped to a match-best .343 in the third set. The offensive improvement helped ETSU pick up its first true road victory of the season over Liberty by set scores of 25-21, 25-17, 25-19.

Individually, the Bucs were led by their setter Alyssa Kvarta (Crown Point, Ind.) and Milhorn. Kvarta tallied a double-double with 38 assists and 10 digs. Milhorn closed out the tournament with 15 kills and a .368 hitting percentage on 30 attack attempts.

News and Notes:

Just like last weekend, the Bucs had three players named to the All-Tournament team. Briana Allmon was named the Liberty Invitational’s MVP. Allmon was joined on the team by AJ Lux and Hailey Aguilar. 

Coach’s Take:

“The best thing about today was the team’s relentless defense,” said ETSU Head Coach Lindsey Devine. “Everyone fought so hard and made in-game adjustments to keep the opponent off balance. The carryover from practice was implemented into our game plan, which is a testament to their commitment in trusting the process.”

Up Next: ETSU will return to action next weekend as it will compete in the Clemson Classic for the second consecutive season. The Bucs will take on Clemson (1:30 p.m.) and North Dakota (4:30 p.m.) on Friday before closing out the tournament with a 7 p.m. match against Tulane Saturday. 

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